About 100 North Wagga residents gathered to protest Wagga City Council's refusal for a full levee upgrade.
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A lawyer acting on behalf of the North Wagga Residents' Association visited as part of the community's bid to have the flood levee raised to a one-in-100 year level of protection.
Residents told the solicitor Stewart Levitt that they feel like second-class citizens to those living on the opposite side of the bridge.
Past president and passionate NW resident Laurie Blowes demanded they receive the same protections as other parts of the city.
"We're all citizens of Wagga; we pay our rates, we pay a levee to put a levee on the city side ... we're not asking for anything special," Mr Blowes said.
"It's extremely important not just to me, but to everybody. We need a mayor and a council that treat us the same as every resident in Wagga.
"The fact that we live in a flood plain ... the amount of young people that have put their homes up, we're all trying our best to not be a burden on the rest of Wagga."
A 2015 state government report identified the levee is a flood mitigation project worth $6.81 million.
In a letter directed to council last month, Mr Levitt accused council of diverting this money however general manager Peter Thompson denied claims that these funds exist.
Mr Levitt said he received this information from an authoritative source within council.
"I'm not in a position to dispute at this stage; preliminary discovery might need to be undertaken to determine the veracity of this information which I received," he said.
"The person who told me that, was a person in a position of authority and somebody who I would have expected who's in the know."
It was also suggested in the letter that "ulterior commercial pecuniary interests" could be influencing the levee-decision making.
Mr Levitt identified three "stupid" reasons from a 2018 WMA report why a one-in-100 levee would be undesirable or not the appropriate way to go on scientific grounds.
He listed fears that this level of protection would cause complacency and a loss of vigilance as well as paving the way for more development, which would destroy the community atmosphere.
"In other words, keep the disease because you're used to it," Mr Levitt said.
"[These residents] pay increased insurance premiums, their property values are depressed ... they're effectively economically retarded as a result of the lack of protection they receive.
"All levels of government have turned a blind eye to the continued but very real risk they face of massive inundation and destruction of property."
The NWRA treasurer Fiona Ziff said Mr Levitt's visit was a chance for residents to be informed of their rights and what the plans are in moving forward.
"It's about giving them a level of comfort about how confident he is about the case," she said.
"Why should we pay for a levee to be upgraded to flood us?"